I was fascinated the first time I heard that from the moment they’re born, sharks never stop swimming, even when they are asleep.

What a great metaphor for life: always keep moving… forward. And how similar to my personal philosophy of AGAI: if you want to get the most juice out of it, Always Grow and Improve in all 7 areas of life. Because let’s face it, when we aren’t moving forward, what are we doing?

Benjamin Franklin also observed that continuous growth and learning is a requisite for fulfillment when he said “some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.” Does that seem harsh?

When you stop growing, you stay rooted in the past, the present passes you by, and the future becomes more threatening.

By the way, even if you are moving slowly, it’s okay… so long as you are moving forward.

Always Grow and Improve.

So which of the 7 areas of your life are you focusing on today?

Ciao!

Taylor

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Can you be successful and still feel like a failure? You bet.

But stop beating yourself up about this!

Look, feeling like a failure is just a sign you are a normal human being.

Personally while I don’t find feelings of failure are bad, I do find it helpful to redefine your relationship with the word failure.

And because failure only exists in the context of success, you really need to think about your idea and your own definition of success. In particular, ask yourself whether you buy into our popular culture’s definition of success or if it was ingrained at an early age.

Finally, whenever you feel stuck in life, like you’ve hit a wall or have taken a wrong turn, remember that those feelings often mean a breakthrough lies around the corner.

Ciao!

Taylor

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, all work no play makes Jane a dull girl.

Chances are you know you need to let go, lighten up, and let some more fun in your life. And maybe you wonder why.

Reason number 1 is because in your competitive and fast-paced world, you have more than enough stress and exhaustion – both of which you see are detrimental to your health physically, emotionally, and mentally. As you let go and have more fun, you de-stress and you are also less cranky.

Second, you’re working so hard for that rainy day. The thing is, at the rate you’re going, when that time comes, your body won’t be in tip top shape, and will be working overtime trying to protect you from disease. If letting go and having fun translates into getting you to laugh more, stress less, enhance your memory, improve your physical appearance and mental health, and live longer, I’d say those are good reasons to have more fun, don’t you think?

Third, having fun can be excellent bonding time. If your family and friends think you’ve been missing in action (MIA), fun can help you maintain relationships and increase intimacy with the people you hold dearest and closest to your heart.

Although you want to stay on top of your game at work and keep up with the demands of life, loosening your grip on the steering wheel of your life to pause and take a break, to see and enjoy what else life has to offer is equally, if not especially, important.

Tennis player Serena Williams, while ranked among the world’s top-performing and highest-paid female athletes, went to school to train as a nail technician. Was it a marketing stunt? That’s beside the point. The fact is Serena shows us she knows it is important to let go and have fun, which she should.

Now I can’t resist taking an informal survey… so tell me, are you having loads of fun in your life, what makes you feel good, happy and alive, and despite what others say about how blondes have more fun, I don’t think the color of your hair has anything to do with how much you can enjoy yourself, so why not include what color is your hair?

Ciao!

Taylor

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I need ipod workout music ideas for my ipod.

And I thought maybe you can tell me about some of your best picks?

My same old same old is getting boring.

80′s, 90′s, top 40 anything.

Have fun with it and we can all get exposed to some new music.

So, I’m eager to hear your suggestions?

Ciao!

Taylor

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Hi,

I was looking out one of our windows this morning and was reminded again of how badly we need to clean our gutters.

And just at that moment it hit me it’s probably a great analogy for our own personal development and well-being…

Gutters serve a purpose. See, they’re conduits… clean gutters channel water from your roof into the down spout and away from your home. In other words, they keep you protected, clean, dry and secure. And if you think about it, these conduits are actually pretty important for keeping your nest, your castle, your home, from rotting away.

If you let them go uncleared for a little while is okay – you know how we all get busy with other things. But let them go for a long time, and that’s how you spell trouble. The gutters get all clogged up, mosquitoes lay their eggs which then become squirming larvae, leaves and other debris start to rot and get really nasty and stinky… and eventually there is nowhere for the water to go but into your roof (and maybe even into your living room).

And ignore them for a while and you also start to do that other thing…

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Hi,

Once upon a time we had a beautiful painted mailbox…

A friend of mine went to this fun workshop where she designed and painted a new mailbox that showed the world her personal style, so she decided we should paint ours.

That was a time… when mailboxes held letters. You know, real letters – I’m talking about the paper kind – addressed to you and written by someone you know, by hand. Letters that probably held news, thoughts, and a genuine interest in your life. Questions to be answered and perhaps love to be returned.

…Those were the days…heartfelt cards in the mail from another human being, pen pals, …the “just thinking about you’s”

Fast forward a bit through time… And even though we still get mail, because junk mail is so ubiquitous, you’re more likely to believe your name is Householder or Occupant!

And if you’re like me, you’d probably agree how today, with so much junk mail (it’s probably safe to say 80-90% of most snail mail is unsolicited junk mail), a thoughtful postcard or greeting card is like a breath of fresh air, wouldn’t you?

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Hi,

It’s amazing how small an agent of change can be…

For me, it recently was a tiny fruit fly that motivated me to make a change in my life.

I’ve talked about motivation in earlier posts; and what really gets you up and moving. This time for me-of all things-it was bugs near my fruit bowl.

Picture this… It’s summertime, and fruit flies are multiplying all over the joint! Naturally we’re to blame because we see so many delicious fruits and can’t resist piling it up in the kitchen…

…And wouldn’t you know these eager little critters can’t resist helping us eat it.

See, the “fruit fly situation” in my house just got unbearable. Actually, out of control. They gravitate towards anything that has even a hint of sweetness or sugar to it.

They converge onto a spoon.

If you leave a bottle of wine open, they swarm to the rim or just plunge right in.

I forgot how quickly these suckers can procreate and multiply.

…It kind of makes me want to brush up on my biology 101 to see how long it actually takes them to create more offspring. I’d say it’s about fifteen seconds? And BAM!, a thousand more pesky Drosophila Melanogasters now fluffing around my fruit bowl.

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Howdy.

My last post reminded me of a few things I’ve picked up about the brain that I want to share with you. In particular, the way our brain learns a language.

See, there are two main parts of our gray matter that learn to speak, and they do it in very different ways.

First there’s the “conscious” way. You know, the usual stuff like language lessons, repetition, note-taking and a kind of deliberate, focused learning.

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This past week I had to take a long drive. I didn’t really want to. And the more I loathed the idea of being on the road for hours and hours, the more important it became to think differently.

So even though there was lots to do and driving was going to keep me from it, I figured this was a great opportunity to take a break and be alone with my thoughts on the open road.

My thoughts kept me interested for about thirty minutes (I know all the punchlines to my jokes). And because I had much further to go, it was time to dust off some audio books I brought along for the ride (John Grisham and some Dean Koontz, in case you´re interested).

Audio books-fiction and non-fiction-are a favorite of mine and take me back to the days of the Walkman. Remember them? They were the latest in miniature technology. I managed to go through several of them jogging-the heavy little things would slip from my side and crash to the ground.

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